Monday, July 31, 2006

Two Faces of Society

The war is over for me nowMy task at last is through.But Mom and Dad there’s somethingThat I must ask of you.I have a friend, oh, such a friendHe has no home you see.So Mom and Dad I ask of youCan I bring him home with me?

My son of course, we don’t mindIf you bring someone home with you.I’m sure that he could stay with usMaybe a day or two.

But Mom and Dad, you don’t understand,What I’m trying to say.I want him here to live with usFor as long as he may stay.Yet Mom and Dad I must tell you now,And please don’t be alarmed,My friend, you see, while in battleJust happened to lose an arm.

My son don’t be ashamed of that,Just bring him home with you.I’m sure that he could stay with usAnd visit a day or two.

But Mom and Dad he’s not only a friend,He’s like a brother of me.That’s why I want him to live with usAnd be your son like me.Yet Mom and Dad I must tell you now,And please don’t be dismayed.My friend, you see, while in battle,Just happened to lose his leg.Dear son, it hurts us to say this to youBut our answer would be no.For Father and I would have no timeTo care for a cripple so.

Some weeks later a telegram arrivedInforming them their son had died.The cause of death was one brief word,It only read “Suicide”.Some time later when the casket arrived,All draped with our nations flag,They saw their son lying thereWithout an arm and leg.

CNN anchor takes Israeli spokeswoman to task

CNN anchor: “[Hizbullah’s rockets] are crude rockets, aren’t they? and after all, their impact has been minimal compared to the impact of Israeli strikes on Lebanon.

Explain something to us, why would you not try to be shooting these Katusha missiles, or rockets I should say – they’re not missiles at all - they’re rockets. Why would Israel not be trying to shoot them out of the sky? They have the capability to do that.

Israeli spokeswoman: No, Rosemarie, these are Katusha rockets which they fire a barrel a dozen and the fact that there haven’t been casualties in Israel shouldn’t necessarily be held against us . . .

WRONG!!! It should be held against Israel because in order to justify a claim of self-defense you must use only the force necessary to repel the degree of force being threatened against you. The force used in "self-defense" must be proportionate. In other words, if there are little or no actual casualties in Israel, then Israel is charged with that knowledge and must be held accountable for excessive force used to defend against it.

Million $ Question - What is Israel defending?

Most people in the world naively believe that Israel is defending its people from physical attacks on their persons and property. But, that's only half the story - and not the most important half. The cold hard truth is that Israel, first and foremost, is defending a racist ideology that requires inhumane and criminal practices to implement and maintain, at all costs.

This assertion is NOT anti-semitic - it's anti-racist AND it is based on factual observations made by others, including Oren Ben-Dor, an Israeli who teaches the philosophy of law and political philosophy at University of Southampton, in his commentary "Who are the real terrorists in the Middle East?What exactly is being defended? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state?" published in The Independent UK, July 26, 2006.

READ IT, and learn the bitter answer to the million dollar question "What is Israel defending?"and, by extension, what Americans are helping them defend.

As its citizens are being killed, Israel is, yet again, inflicting death and destruction on Lebanon. It tries to portray this horror as necessary for its self-defence. Indeed, the casual observer might regard the rocket attacks on Israeli cities such as Haifa and my own home town, Nahariya, as justifying this claim.

While states should defend their citizens, states which fail this duty should be questioned and, if necessary, reconfigured. Israel is a state which, instead of defending its citizens, puts all of them, Jews as well as non-Jews, in danger.

What exactly is being defended by the violence in Gaza and Lebanon? Is it the citizens of Israel or the nature of the Israeli state? I suggest the latter. Israel's statehood is based on an unjust ideology which causes indignity and suffering for those who are classified as non-Jewish by either a religious or ethnic test.

To hide this primordial immorality, Israel fosters an image of victimhood. Provoking violence, consciously or unconsciously, against which one must defend oneself is a key feature of the victim-mentality. By perpetuating such a tragic cycle, Israel is a terrorist state like no other.

Many who wish to hide the immorality of the Israeli state do so by restricting attention to the horrors of the post-1967 occupation and talking about a two-state solution, since endorsing a Palestinian state implicitly endorses the ideology behind a Jewish one.

The very creation of Israel required an act of terror. In 1948, most of the non-Jewish indigenous people were ethnically cleansed from the part of Palestine which became Israel. This action was carefully planned. Without it, NO STATE WITH A JEWISH MAJORITY AND CHARACTER would have been possible.

Since 1948, the "Israeli Arabs", those Palestinians who avoided expulsion, have suffered continuous discrimination. Indeed, many have been internally displaced, ostensibly for "security reasons", but really to acquire their lands for Jews.

Surely Holocaust memory and Jewish longing for Eretz Israel would not be sufficient to justify ethnic cleansing and ethnocracy? To avoid the destabilisation that would result from ethical inquiry, the Israeli state must hide the core problem, by nourishing a victim mentality among Israeli Jews.

To sustain that mentality and to preserve an impression of victimhood among outsiders, Israel must breed conditions for violence. Whenever prospects of violence against it subside, Israel must do its utmost to regenerate them: the myth that it is a peace-seeking victim which has "no partner for peace" is a key panel in the screen with which Israel hides its primordial and continuing immorality.

Israel's successful campaign to silence criticism of its initial and continuing dispossession of the indigenous Palestinians leaves the latter no option but to resort to violent resistance.In the wake of electing Hamas - the only party which, in the eyes of Palestinians, has not yet given up their cause - the Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank were subjected to an Israeli campaign of starvation, humiliation and violence.

The insincere "withdrawal" from Gaza, and the subsequent blockade, ensured a chronicle of violence which, so far, includes Palestinian firing of Kasem rockets, the capture of an Israeli soldier and the Israeli near re-occupation of Gaza. What we witness is more hatred, more violence from Palestinians, more humiliation and collective punishments from Israelis - all useful reinforcement for the Israeli victim mentality and for the sacred cow status of Israeli statehood.

The truth is that there never could have been a partition of Palestine by ethically acceptable means.Israel was created through terror and it needs terror to cover-up its core immorality. ******Whenever there is a glimmer of stability, the state orders a targeted assassination, such as that in Sidon which preceded the current Lebanon crisis,****** knowing well that this brings not security but more violence. Israel's unilateralism and the cycle of violence nourish one another.

Amidst the violence and despite the conventional discourse which hides the root of this violence, actuality calls upon us to think. The more we silence its voice, the more violently actuality is sure to speak.

In Hebrew, the word elem (a stunned silence resulting from oppression or shock) is etymologically linked to the word almut (violence).Silence about the immoral core of Israeli statehood makes us all complicit in breeding the terrorism that threatens a catastrophe which could tear the world apart.

Israel does not defend Jews; it defends Zionism - a racist ideology that claims the right to a Jewish majority in the Biblical land of Eretz Israel - AT ALL COSTS, including everything that you see happening today in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq.

Don't let the media fool you. This is not about "democracy" or "freedom." It's about Racism, Power and Control and they will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Think about it. And if you believe in justice and equal rights for ALL human beings, then DO NOT remain silent. If you do, now you KNOW what you are defending.

“killing people is like squashing an ant”

All the talk about terrorism, war crimes and civilized values; and human rights, democracy and liberation - is just that - hot air.

"Killing people is like squashing an ant" sayeth the pride of the US Armed Forces, or rather, Mr. Green, who raped a teenage girl and then killed her and her family in Mahmudiyya, Iraq:

"I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing," he went on. "Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant. I mean, you kill somebody and it's like 'All right, let's go get some pizza.' "

Read his interview, and decide for yourself whether it is a systemic widespread problem of the Zionaxis, or a one-off anomaly.

Israel agrees to 48 hr “cessation of air activities”

Unable to withstand the fury of global outrage, Israel has capitulated and agreed to 48hrs of "cessation of air activities" to allow for civilian evacuations. But, CNN reports live that there is currently an extraordinary amount of air activity, with some planes approaching very close to the ground. It's not accompanied by explosions, but the reporter says it's unprecedented in frequency.

This remains a very precarious situation, and as I said in response to another comment, today the naked truth of Israeli agression has them flipping about like fish out of water extracted from the safety of their lies.

Unfortunately, with their lies and brutality exposed, they are now cornered. We can only anticipate even more desperate measures on their part, as their only recourse is unbridled terror.

I pray to God that I am wrong.

_________UPDATE:

MAKE THAT 24HRS!!!

In ten minutes, it will be reduced to 12hrs. Israelis measure in dog years.

IMPORTANT CAVEAT Just in!

Israel reserves the right to attack ANY target that it SUSPECTS is about to target it.

The “Human Shield” LIE Exposed

On the heels of Israel's horrendous massacre of more than 60 civilians in Qana, among them OVER 40 CHILDREN, I will lay to rest once and for all, the colossal lie presented in unison by these mass murderers and their accomplices, in defense of the indefensible - the position that Hizbullah uses civilians as "human shields" against overwhelming Israeli aggression.

Nothing could be more illogical or absurd. Let's examine it carefully.When someone uses another human being as a "shield," under the plain meaning of the word, it is understood to be a method to deter aggression by adversaries. In order for that objective to be achieved, crucial premises must first exist.

The party who employs the human shield MUST assume that their adversary will hesitate to fire against those shields for fear of harming them.

But in order for that to happen, the adversary must first CARE about the welfare of the so-called "human shields."

If the opposing party DOES NOT CARE about their welfare, then the alleged objective of deterring aggression falls apart.

For example, in the United States, a bank robber might take a hostage to deter the use of overwhelming force by police. In every case, the police DO NOT fire for fear that they might jeopardize the life of the hostage.

On the other hand, Israel has proved time and again, beyond ANY reasonable doubt, that they ARE NOT deterred in any manner whatsoever from employing overwhelming force against whatever target they see fit, regardless of whether civilians are in the area.

Israel's routine AFTER-THE-FACT attempts to characterize civilian victims of their ruthless aggression as Hizbullah's "human shields" is nothing less than a diabolical effort to twist the meaning of the phrase beyond all recognition.

Once we dispense with this bogus "shield" theory, the only alternative Israel presents in its favor is the outrageous suggestion that Hizbullah fired from near civilian areas for the purpose of provingthat Israel DOES NOT CARE about massive civilian deaths. In other words, not as a method to deter aggression but as a method to win the PR war against Israel. If believed, then indeed Hizbullah succeeded in proving that Israel DOES NOT CARE ONE IOATA about the lives of innocent Arab civilians.

Under such an outrageous theory, civilians cannot be characterized as "human shields," but instead must be called "human sacrifices"for the purpose of exposing Israeli savagery.

If accepted, this theory cannot prove that Hizbullah is cynically using innocent civilians without FIRST establishing that Israelis are savage barbarians.

Hizbullah can only prove about Israel that which is already TRUE.

In such a scenario, Hizbullah's alleged cynicism cannot be a cause in fact of civilian deaths without an intervening and proximate cause - the depraved indifference by Israelis to massive loss of innocent civilian lives.

Make no mistake, Israelis are not only remorseless mass murderers, they are unrepentant liars - the most evil combination known to man.

________UPDATE:

For clarification, I categorically reject the ridiculous assertion that Hizbullah uses their families' lives as pawns in a PR game to prove a point that is already CRYSTAL CLEAR from how Israel conducts itself in Palestine.

The TRUTH is that Hizbullah fights from their neighborhoods. They have no other option. After all, it is their country and they are defending it.

ISRAEL could invade the border with ground forces and attempt to attack Hizbullah selectively with very little Lebanese civilian casualties. But, that course of action results in high Israeli military casualties, which Israel is not willing to suffer.

Instead, they engage in a twisted racist and depraved cost/benefit analysis wherein they choose to KILL HUNDREDS of innocent Arab civilians by using overwhelming arial force rather than risk dozens of Israeli military lives.

One can only conclude that Israelis are craven and depraved cowards, who consider the lives of their military men more precious than the lives of innocent unarmed Arab civilians.

And the WORLD knows this as sure as they know that the sun rises from the east.

A cry for help from the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem

For the past forty years we have been largely alone on this desert fighting a predator that not only has robbed us of all but a small piece of our historic homeland, but threatens the traditions and holy sites of Christianity. We are tired, weary, sick, and wounded. We need your help.

We have seen and we have been the recipients of the generosity of our American and British friends. We cherish the support of everyone throughout the world who stands with us in solidarity. Daily, I hear from many of them who express outrage at the arrogant and aggressive positions of President Bush, Secretary Rice, Senator Clinton, and Prime Minister Blair. I am saddened to realise just how much the deserved prestige of the United States and Britain has declined as a result of politicians who seem to devalue human life and suffering. And, I am disturbed that the Zionist Christian community is damaging America’s image as never before.

Little more than a week ago, we were focused on the plight of the Palestinian people. In Gaza, four and five generations have been victims of Israeli racism, hate crimes, terror, violence, and murder. Garbage and sewage have created a likely outbreak of cholera as Israeli strategies create the collapse of infrastructures. There is no milk. Drinking water, food, and medicine are in serious short supply. Innocents are being killed and dying from lack of available emergency care. Children are paying the ultimate price. Even for those whose lives are spared, many of them are traumatised and will not grow to live useful lives. Commerce between the West Bank and Gaza has been halted and humanitarian aid barely trickles into some of the neediest in the world.

Movement of residents of the West Bank is difficult or impossible as “security measures” are heightened to break the backs of the Palestinian people and cut them off from their place of work, schools, hospitals, and families. It is family and community that has sustained these people during these hopeless times. For some, it is all that they had, but that too has been taken away with the continued building of the wall and check points. The strategy of ethnic cleansing on the part of the State of Israel continues.

This week, war broke out on the Lebanon-Israeli border (near Banyas where Jesus gave St. Peter the keys to heaven and earth).

The Israeli government’s disproportionate reaction to provocation was consistent with their opportunistic responses in which they destroy their perceived enemy.

In her recent article, “The Insane Brutality of the State of Israel,” American, Kathleen Christison, a former CIA analyst says, “The state lashes out in a crazed effort, lacking any sense of proportion, to reassure itself of its strength.” She continues, “A society that can brush off as unimportant an army officer’s brutal murder of a thirteen year old girl on the claim that she threatened soldiers at a military post (one of nearly seven hundred Palestinian children murdered by Israelis since the Intifada began) is not a society with a conscience.” The “situation” as it has come to be called, has deteriorated into a war without boundaries or limitations. It is a war with deadly potential beyond the imaginations of most civilized people.

As I write to you, I am preparing to leave with other bishops for Nablus with medical and other emergency supplies for five hundred families, and a pledge for one thousand families more.

On Saturday we will attempt to enter Gaza with medical aid for doctors and nurses in our hospital there who struggle to serve the injured, the sick, and the dying.

My plan is that I will be able to go to Lebanon next week - where we are presently without a resident priest - to bury the dead, and comfort the victims of war. Perhaps as others have you will ask, “What can I do?” Certainly we encourage and appreciate your prayers. That is important, but it is not enough. If you find that you can no longer look away, take up your cross. It takes courage as we were promised.

Write every elected official you know. Write to your news media. Speak to your congregation, friends, and colleagues about injustice and the threat of global war. If Syria, Iran, the United States, Great Britain, China and others enter into this war - the consequence is incalculable. Participate in rallies and forums. Find ways that you and your churches can participate in humanitarian relief efforts for the region. Contact us and let us know if you stand with us. I urge you not to be like a disciple watching from afar.

2 Corinthians 6.11“ We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians, our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return - I speak as to children - open wide your hearts also.”

Saturday, July 29, 2006

“You’re damned right this is disproportionate”

I'm not a connoisseur of heavy metal, but this video collage - especially how it begins - and the artist's choice of music (Sabotage, by Beastie Boys), with its lyrics, is very compelling.

Listen carefully to how Dan Gillerman, Israeli Ambassador to the UN, responds to claims that Israel is using disproportionate force. His candid and brutal admission followed by graphic scenes of disproportionate force demonstrates, once again, that the outrageous scope of Israeli destruction in Lebanon is both calculated and deliberate - Overwhelming, Premeditated Aggression - and what better way to set the stage than sabotage.

Also, note the surreal footage, towards the end, of Condoleeza Rice playing the piano.

I Can't Stand It I Know You Planned ItI'm Gonna Set It Straight, This WatergateI Can't Stand Rocking When I'm In HereBecause Your Crystal Ball Ain't So Crystal ClearSo While You Sit Back and Wonder WhyI Got This Fucking Thorn In My SideOh My, It's A MirageI'm Tellin' Y'all It's Sabotage

So Listen Up 'Cause You Can't Say Nothin'You'll Shut Me Down With A Push Of Your Button?But Yo I'm Out And I'm GoneI'll Tell You Now I Keep It On And On

'Cause What You See You Might Not GetAnd We Can Bet So Don't You Get Souped YetYou're Scheming On A Thing That's A MirageI'm Trying To Tell You Now It's Sabotage

Whyyy; Our Backs Are Now Against The WallListen All Of Y'all It's A SabotageListen All Of Y'all It's A SabotageListen All Of Y'all It's A SabotageListen All Of Y'all It's A Sabotage

I Can't Stand It, I Know You Planned ItBut I'm Gonna Set It Straight This WatergateBut I Can't Stand Rockin' When I'm In This PlaceBecause I Feel Disgrace Because You're All In My FaceBut Make No Mistakes And Switch Up My ChannelI'm Buddy Rich When I Fly Off The HandleWhat Could It Be, It's A MirageYou're Scheming On A Thing - That's Sabotage

Israel's going down and taking US with them

Jerusalem Post is asking for resignation of IDF generals due to their retreat from Bint Jbeil and their unpreparedness because of the overuse of the word 'terrorist'.

Times UK reports Nasrallah eclipses bin Laden and has 89% support among Sunnis and 80% support among Lebanese Christians.

In a slow controlled display of his arsenal, Hizbullah promises to reach Central Israel if Israel does not back off its air strikes in the next couple of days. This statement was by Nasrallah who, according to Mossad, never lies.

It appears the war was started by a personal insult: 'Nasrallah called the new team "small" and even made a dismissive hand gesture. Writing in the Haaretz newspaper, Doron Rosenblum said this insult to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his advisers virtually guaranteed Israel would launch a harsh military response. He said Nasrallah's short, pointed speech really kicked off the war. "Was it a clever trap laid by the wily fox?" Rosenblum wrote. "Or perhaps one uncalculated moment of catastrophic hubris."'

This is a battle neither party can lose. One strategist opines, 'if Israel loses, US position in Iraq will be untenable.'

To save the facade of the US 'war on terror', Israel must exercise unlimited 'scorched earth' policy to wipe out Hizbullah. Nothing less will do now. But it may already be too late - even a 'targeted killing' of Nasrallah will not help.

Israel’s ‘Final Solution’ to Arabs in South Lebanon

As the world stands by, either because they are in on it, too afraid to act, or simply don't care, Israel implements its ‘Final Solution’ to the Arabs of South Lebanon. It should be painfully clear to anyone whose been following this crisis that Israel is cleansing South Lebanon of its Arab population. If you need more proof, watch the video clips.

In the one above, Lebanese civilians live under squalid conditions, drinking putrid pond water with little or nothing to eat, in what remains of southern Lebanon after weeks of indiscrimate Israeli bombing.

Most have no way out, while the few that do continue to be targeted by Israeli shells. In one scene, a convoy, headed by an ambulance [wink, wink], comes under fire and they flee to "the relative safety" of a nearby UN post. In other words, they're doomed.

After being fired at more than once, the stupid BBC reporter refuses to blame Israel even when it's obvious that the shells were Israeli and that the civilians in the convoy, reporters included, were being hunted like animals.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to reject international pleas that they merely PAUSE their murderous rampage to allow the sick and wounded a chance to survive.

"We cannot accept a ceasefire with Hezbollah because this terrorist organisation would exploit it to gather civilians to use them as a human shield in the combat zone," Gideon Meir, a senior foreign ministry official, told AFP Saturday.

So, Israel decided to kill them first so Hizbullah can no longer exploit them. How thoughtful.

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland on Friday appealed for the truce between Israel and the Shiite militant group to allow casualties to be removed and food and medicine to be sent into the war zone.

Meir said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had already agreed, during talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, to set up humanitarian corridors to bring in aid to civilians in southern Lebanon.

Where the f*ck are these corridors? All I've heard about are convoys being targeted and obliterated.

Rice was due back in the Middle East Saturday and talks on humanitarian issues would continue when she visited Israel, he said.

Israel on Friday already allowed three trucks to bring food and medicine to areas in south Lebanon, he added.

Meir said that from Sunday a UN representative would be present at a humanitarian relief centre which has been set up by the Israeli army at the border to organise humanitarian aid for south Lebanon.

How gracious - they send three trucks of food for thousands of starving trapped civilians and set up a 'relief center' that civilians have no way of reaching.

Egeland said he had proposed the truce to the UN Security Council on Friday and would approach Israel and Hezbollah to agree to the humanitarian cessation of hostilities.

But Meir said Egeland had not yet formally presented his proposal to the Israeli government.

This is simply mind boggling. Israelis want the world to fill out a form in triplicate before they will consider sparing the lives of thousands of innocent civilians.

If after all this, you don't believe that Israel is deliberately cleansing South Lebanon of its Arab inhabitants, you are either in on the massacre, or you just don't care enough to get a clue. Either way, you share the blame if you don't do something to stop this madness.

They may be ‘Chosen’ - but they sure are dumb

Mr Straw said Mr Howells was right to tell the Israelis: "If you want to go for Hezbeollah, go for Hezbollah, don't go for the whole Lebanese nation."

* * *

At talks in Rome on Wednesday, the US, UK and regional powers urged peace be sought with the "utmost urgency", but stopped short of calling for an immediate truce. That prompted Mr Ramon to declare Israel had received "permission from the world... to continue the operation".

But questioned by reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Kuala Lumpur, [US State Department spokesman, Adam] Ereli said: "Any such statement is outrageous."

But, Israel keeps piling it on.

Israel has carried out dozens of fresh strikes on Lebanon. Estimates of the number of people killed range from three to 13.

Two mortar rounds have hit a convoy of vehicles carrying civilians escaping the violence in southern Lebanon.

The BBC's Jim Muir, who was with the convoy, said two people - a driver and a television cameraman in a German television car - were wounded when the rounds exploded next to their vehicle.

The convoy, organised by the Australian embassy, was returning to the port city of Tyre from the border village of Rmeish, where hundreds of people have been trapped by the Israeli offensive.

Our correspondent says the cars were clearly marked as a press and civilian convoy, and that individual journalists had been in contact with the Israelis who knew about the journey.

A BBC security adviser travelling in a car behind the German television car said he believed the mortar rounds had been fired from the Israeli side.

And as if all this bloody murder isn't enough, they keep beaming images of their war-crazed population signing bombs and dancing on our graves. How sick and twisted.

If they honestly think that the world is going to cheer them on as they kill women and children and turn nations into rubble over a few soldiers and some largely harmless rockets, then either they're as dumb as door knobs or they're terminally insane.